Gear Review: Burris Fast Fire 3

Up for review is yet another red dot sight – this time the Burris FastFire 3. This little diddy is mounted on a Glock 19 Gen 4 MOS with suppressor height sights.

The Burris is a small red dot like many others, but it’s elegant and simple, and I like that. This doesn’t come with 10 brightness settings or anything, but just 3 – well 4.

When you first hit the button on the left side of the unit and it powers on, it’s default is auto brightness mode. This means that whatever ambient light is around, the unit will adjust the dot accordingly. After the default auto-brightness mode, your have 3 additional settings – then off.

You have high, medium and low essentially.

I personally like it in the medium setting, especially when I use this dot in shooting competitions. I don’t need it flickering when I’m transitioning from concealment to target. The 3 MOA dot itself is very clear, crisp, and picked up easily.

Another great feature about this unit, like the Vortex Venom, is that to replace the battery you don’t have to remove the unit. It’s top load with a CR series battery. The adjustments are in 1/4 MOA increments.

Zeroing the unit proved rather simple as well. With my first shots I was already on paper, and the turrets to the right and top of the unit adjust easily with an included screwdriver. Soon I was punching holes at point of aim from 25 yards all the way to point blank.

I shoot a lot of Glocks, but I’m exceptionally accurate with this MOS and an Overwatch Trigger in it. Believe it or not, the group pictured to the right after I got the sight dialed in is a 7 shot group at 7 yards.

It mounts very solidly to the MOS platform with the number one plate. There is no play on the unit, and it handles recoil very well. I’d even be confident using the optic to rack the slide in a pinch.

The dot has not flickered or strayed from zero despite being used in several pistol matches where I carried concealed and undoubtedly bumped the optic. However, one thing I don’t like, is that even with suppressor sights, you don’t get a co-witness.

Pros, what we like:
Simple, brutally simple red dot with 3 brightness settings and easy adjustments. Also, you don’t have to hold down or say a Hail Mary to turn it off, you just need to click the button past the dimmest setting. It holds zero, is rugged, and comes with a decent warranty.

Cons, what we don’t like:
Lacks some features other red dots of similar ilk have – but I like the spartan nature of it. Also, this doesn’t have a night vision setting like many Vortex products.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Castiglione lives in Atlanta, and is an avid outdoorsman and competitive shooter.

Where-abouts include getting after it in his garage gym, practicing martial arts, hitting the trails, or running CrossFit and Strongman competitions for his non-profit, Barbells for Bullies, which holds fundraiser fitness competitions dedicated to aiding Bully breed rescues, dog rescues, or other non-profits with similar missions.

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